Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker
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“Tensions between the two studios”: Bernard Weinraub, “As Titanic Hits No. 1, Perils Lurk in Its Future,” New York Times, December 22, 1997.
Cameron wanted to go even later: “The reality of getting the film done at the necessary level of visual quality was becoming almost impossible,” wrote Cameron in an email to the author. “The film was simply too long and the visual effects too unprecedented….I said if we could establish a foothold with a good opening right before Christmas, then audiences had the relatively quiet months of January and February to find the film, and it would create an opportunity for repeat viewing. It was a radical hypothesis, with no real-world precedent.”
“She had a very emotional reaction”: Ibid.
Contrary to industry expectations: Boxofficemojo.com.
“The picture went ‘clean’ ”: Author interview with Bill Bernstein.
“She sent over the photo in a silver frame”: Author interview with Jon Landau.
CHAPTER 16
“She was tough when she needed to be tough”: Author interview with Bryan Lourd.
“She would do her reading on a Friday”: Author interview with Karen Rosenfelt.
Lansing would buzz each executive directly: Author interview with Michelle Manning.
“Sherry was a really hard worker”: Author interview with Scott Rudin.
When Jordan Kerner, a producer: Author interview with Jordan Kerner.
Many of these producers considered Lansing a friend: Author interview with Michelle Manning.
“To my dismay, she now said she wanted changes”: Alexander Payne, email message to author, September 11, 2015.
Lansing leveled a finger at him: Author interview with John Goldwyn.
Lansing’s irritation welled up: Rebecca Traister, “Ed Norton to Paramount’s Sherry Lansing: Burn This!” New York Observer, September 30, 2002.
When Fox cast him in 1997’s Fight Club: Ibid.
“Did he have a deal?”: This is Lansing’s recollection. Wahlberg confirmed the essence of their conversation. Author interview with Mark Wahlberg.
“It wasn’t a film I had much interest in”: Edward Norton, email message to author, June 19, 2016.
“Sherry said, ‘We’re going to force his hand’ ”: Author interview with Mark Wahlberg.
“I was informed, again, that Paramount would sue me”: Edward Norton, email message to author.
Faced with the real possibility: “I don’t know where this story about me bringing a cameraman comes from,” said Norton. “That’s hyperbole.” He explained: “My assistant at the time and I used to shoot little behind-the-scenes photos and movies on every film.” Ibid.
“It was surreal”: Author interview with Donald De Line.
His tantrums were legendary: Amy Wallace, “The Hottest Seats in Hollywood,” Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2000.
Paramount had paid $1.5 million: Benedict Carver, “Truman Suit Retort,” Variety, June 22, 1998. The $1.5 million included Niccol’s directing fee, although he subsequently did not direct.
“I got a call very early in the morning”: Author interview with Michelle Manning.
“Crazy idea”: Author interview with Scott Rudin.
“He was blowing up my phone”: Author interview with Michelle Manning.
“Sherry had a specific method”: Author interview with Don Granger.
The Star Trek franchise, which had been launched: Designer-entrepreneur Gary Goddard expressed frustration when Jaffe turned down the possibility of creating a full-size Starship Enterprise in downtown Las Vegas, where the $150 million cost would have been covered by the city’s redevelopment committee. He said Lansing supported the project, but she had no recollection of it when interviewed for this book. Later, Goddard and Paramount worked on a more minor-scale attraction in Las Vegas. See Gary Goddard, “Now It Can Be Told: The ‘Star Trek’ Attraction That Almost Came to Life in 1992,” posted April 5, 2012, www.thegoddardgroup.com/blog/index.php/now-it-can-be-told-the-star-trek-attraction-that-almost-came-to-life-in-1992.
“When I brought it to Leonard”: Author interview with Rick Berman.
Rodat had been mesmerized: Author interview with Robert Rodat.
He knew of the five Sullivan brothers: See Dan Kurzman, Left to Die: The Tragedy of the USS Juneau (New York: Pocket Books, 1994).
Rodat took his idea to Gordon: Author interview with Mark Gordon.
“You can’t seriously”: Author interview with Rob Cohen.
“The screenplay first came to me through my agents”: Steven Spielberg, email message to author, July 23, 2015.
“Steven said, ‘Look, with the technology that now exists’ ”: Author interview with Tom Hanks.
“The budget was set at”: Author interview with confidential source. The budget may initially have been somewhat lower. See Peter Bart, The Gross: The Hits, the Flops—The Summer That Ate Hollywood (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000), 155.
“[She] was a great team leader”: Spielberg, email message to author.
“I got there early”: Author interview with Robert Rodat.
“It was five days”: In addition to Saving Private Ryan and Amistad, Spielberg was working on another coproduction with Paramount, 1998’s Deep Impact. “So concerned was Spielberg about Deep Impact—a screening of the film at Paramount, which was coproducing the movie, had been so disastrous that executives walked out mumbling ‘straight to video’—that he was taking footage home at night and coming back in the next morning with notes for [director Mimi] Leder.” Nicole LaPorte, The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), 162.
“This was the beginning”: “I asked for ten days of training,” said Dye, a retired Marine Corps captain who had served in Vietnam. “It was reduced to eight. Then it got reduced to about five. We went from the crack of dawn until long after dark, consistently trying to give them the basic infantry skills they needed. I purposely pushed hard.” Author interview with Dale Dye.
“I’ll never forget it”: Author interview with Terry Press.
“I discussed the rating at length with Sherry”: Spielberg, email message to author.
Despite its near-three-hour length: Boxofficemojo.com.
“Here Spielberg, the creator of Schindler’s List”: Richard Schickel, “Reel War,” Time, July 27, 1998.
“Somebody told me that Harvey had hired”: Author interview with Terry Press.
“I remember feeling flushed”: Ibid.
Spielberg was relatively stoic: Others said Spielberg was angry. “Spielberg politely smiled and clapped, but he was furious at having lost by what he considered dirty means, and when the ceremony was over and it came time to head backstage and do press, an act that would mean following Harvey and his procession, Spielberg refused to go.” LaPorte, The Men Who Would Be King, 202.
CHAPTER 17
The actor was in the middle: Andy Marx, “Cruise Team Inks Par Deal,” Variety, November 3, 1992.
“The goal was to make a couple”: Author interview with Paula Wagner.
“The mandate from Sherry and John Goldwyn”: Ibid.
Her relationship with De Palma: Author interview with John Goldwyn.
“When Brian called asking for help”: Jay Cocks, email message to author, August 18, 2015.
“Jay is a phenomenal film historian”: Author interview with Paula Wagner.
“Brian wanted it to be done with sleight of hand”: Ibid.
“I suggested making [him] the major villain”: Cocks, email message to author.
“We’d done a bunch of research”: Author interview with David Koepp.
“She said, ‘OK, kids, here are your rules’ ”: Author interview with Paula Wagner.
Cruise, in fact, had been given some stern counsel: Author interview with confidential source.
Wagner, a newcomer to the production realm: Author interview with Paula Wagner.
Lansing sent Do
n Granger, her production executive: Author interview with Don Granger.
At one point, a crew member noted: Author interview with confidential source.
Cruise was as committed to producing as acting: Author interview with Paula Wagner.
“Brian saw the enormity of Tom’s star power”: Author interview with Rick Nicita.
“He got a lot of interference”: Author interview with confidential source.
Mission’s success, with earnings of $458 million: Boxofficemojo.com.
“It was like these two immovable mountains”: Author interview with confidential source.
“We thought we were cursed”: Author interview with John Woo.
“We start hearing these things”: The hailstorm was the most expensive natural disaster in Sydney’s history, costing more than A$1.7 billion and damaging some 35,000 buildings. Cassie Crofts, “Sydney’s Apocalyptic Hailstorm,” National Geographic, April 14, 2016.
“I said, ‘Sherry’s really mad’ ”: Author interview with Paula Wagner.
Throughout, Cruise avoided proselytizing: Stephen Galloway, “Pat Kingsley Finally Talks: Tom Cruise, Scientology and What She’s Doing Now,” Hollywood Reporter, December 20, 2013.
“I got this invitation to the Scientology ball”: Author interview with Tom Freston.
Goldwyn stopped by Rosenfelt’s office on his way: Author interview with Karen Rosenfelt.
Fifteen minutes later, Lansing was sitting with the two men: Kim Masters, “The Passion of Tom Cruise,” Radar, September 2005.
Goldwyn turned pale: Goldwyn declined to discuss the matter.
“Sherry got teary-eyed”: Author interview with Paula Wagner.
“I was very interested in what I’d pitched him”: Author interview with Joe Carnahan.
“Tom and Paula had met with me”: Author interview with J. J. Abrams.
“It didn’t feel like something I could do justice to”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 18
Born in the Bronx in 1946: See Dawn Steel, They Can Kill You but They Can’t Eat You: Lessons from the Front (New York: Pocket Books, 1993).
In December 1997: Bernard Weinraub, “Dawn Steel, Studio Chief and Producer, Dies at 51,” New York Times, December 22, 1997.
“There are literally thousands of appointments”: Author interview with Barry Munitz.
“I frequently found myself sitting next to Sherry”: Author interview with Ward Connerly.
“She didn’t have the luxury of being overtly political”: Author interview with Bryan Lourd.
“I still use the shorthand of ‘a Sherry Lansing thriller’ ”: Author interview with Stacey Snider.
“There’s nobody who understood the animus”: Author interview with John Goldwyn.
Judd’s coolness under fire: Judd was impressed by Lansing’s granular attention to detail, right down to her makeup and hair. When Lansing asked her to change her hairstyle, Judd replied that the dowdy style fit the time and place. “Honey,” said Lansing, “you’re a movie star.” Author interview with Ashley Judd.
and the movie earned a rich $60 million: Boxofficemojo.com.
“I have two words for you”: Others reported that Lansing warned, “I’ll take your house”—the same threat she had used with Mike Myers. See Kim Masters, “Hollywood’s Best Revenge,” Time, October 7, 1996.
Basinger had been sued: The $8.1 million award was later voided. See Judy Brennan and Edward J. Boyer, “Damages Against Kim Basinger in Film Suit Voided,” Los Angeles Times, September 23, 1994.
“There was no question that Paramount”: Author interview with Jeff Berg.
“Sherry wasn’t known to be brutal”: Author interview with Scott Rudin.
When Fox decided not to make it: Author interview with Amy Heckerling.
The movie earned $56.6 million: Boxofficemojo.com.
“We had about ten drafts before we took it to Sherry”: Author interview with Tina Fey.
“We were at Paramount”: Author interview with Robert Cort.
“Usher was brand-new”: Ibid.
Without Usher, Weinstein pulled out: Harvey Weinstein, email message to author, July 9, 2015.
“I said to [marketing chief] Arthur Cohen”: Author interview with Robert Cort.
That weekend, the picture earned $23 million: Ibid.
Those rights, however, came with a catch: Edward Jay Epstein, “How to Finance a Hollywood Blockbuster,” Slate, April 25, 2005.
One script came in after another: David Hughes, Tales from Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made? (London: Titan Books, 2003), 212–35.
At first West passed: Author interview with Simon West.
“He comes in and almost immediately says”: Author interview with Steven E. de Souza.
“There was a long list of writers”: Author interview with Simon West.
“She definitely had some baggage”: Ibid.
“She said, ‘Look, I want to do it’ ”: Ibid.
“What I noticed immediately”: Angelina Jolie, email message to author, June 18, 2015.
The actress was drug-tested, regardless: Author interview with John Goldwyn.
“There was the notion that we would put a team around her”: Author interview with confidential source.
West suggested hiring Bobby Klein: Christine Spines, “Tomb with a View,” Premiere, July 2001.
Relationships that had been tense before: Gordon blamed Paramount for cutting $9 million from the budget at the last minute. “If you ask a lot of people, you’ll find this out: he’s difficult,” he acknowledged. “You know what difficult means? Difficult means you say, ‘No, I can’t do that.’ They want you to fall over your back and do what they tell you, not even knowing what they’re asking. I’m one of these people that says no.” While prepping the film in London, tensions escalated and he was stripped of his full rights as producer, he added. “I had to eat shit for the whole movie, because all my creative rights were gone. Simon West was the boss of the movie, so Simon West got to make the movie he wanted to make. I lost my teeth.” Later, he said, his full rights were restored. Author interview with Lawrence Gordon.
“Simon West comes with this guy Bobby Klein”: Ibid.
As preproduction got under way in England: Ibid.
“[The expert] wanted her to have milk baths”: Author interview with Lloyd Levin.
When Klein was then accused: Spines, “Tomb with a View.”
Gordon was ecstatic: Author interview with Lawrence Gordon.
“She trained for months beforehand”: Author interview with Simon West.
“It’s to be expected”: Jolie email to author.
“It was horrible”: Author interview with Lloyd Levin.
“It was a very awkward situation”: Author interview with Simon West.
“We had numerous screenings”: Author interview with Lloyd Levin.
Despite the volleys lobbed by the critics: Boxofficemojo.com.
CHAPTER 19
“Everyone was in a state of shock”: Author interview with Ron Meyer.
Ten days after the attacks: Sallie Hofmeister and James Bates, “Movie Studios React to FBI Warning,” Los Angeles Times, September 21, 2001.
“We had watchers on the roofs and across the road”: Author interview with Jonathan Dolgen.
As a patriotic fervor swept the country: Rick Lyman, “A Nation Challenged: The Entertainment Industry; Hollywood Discusses Role in War Effort,” New York Times, November 12, 2001.
“She had me fly with her to Maryland”: Author interview with Mace Neufeld.
During the making of Patriot Games: Author interview with Phillip Noyce.
After several drafts and several writers: Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) was among the other writers who worked on it.
“Sherry wanted to make sure she and I were on the same page”: Author interview with Ben Affleck.
“When I went to see Sherry”: Author interview with Phil Alden Robinson.
“On the morning of September
11”: Ibid.
In May 2002, Sum opened to mixed reviews: The movie earned $194 million globally; boxofficemojo.com.
Many saw it as a reaction to 9/11: See “The Sum of All Fears Controversy,” Fox News, June 3, 2002.
“We delayed the test screenings by a week or two”: Author interview with Phil Alden Robinson.
“The film division wasn’t doing well”: Author interview with Frank Biondi Jr.
“That was the beginning of a difficult time”: Author interview with Bryan Lourd.
“The business was changing”: Author interview with John Goldwyn.
“What Sherry wouldn’t do was look at the things”: Author interview with Scott Rudin.
“As a group, we’d become stale”: Author interview with Karen Rosenfelt.
“What was coming through development”: Author interview with Jonathan Dolgen.
One magazine called them: Anne Thompson, “The Id Couple,” New York Magazine, November 4, 2002.
“He was coming to tell Nicole not to wear the nose”: Author interview with Scott Rudin.
When Weinstein forced Paramount to pull the movie: Writer Ken Auletta described being present with Weinstein as he wrestled over what to do and mused, “Do I be the good Harvey or the bad Harvey?” See Auletta, “Beauty and the Beast,” New Yorker, December 16, 2002.
Rudin called him, outraged: Thompson, “The Id Couple.”
“We both bring strong viewpoints”: Harvey Weinstein, email message to author, July 9, 2015.
Rudin insisted Paramount was in the wrong: Author interview with Scott Rudin.
“I found the amount of energy”: Kim Masters, “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” Esquire, May 2003.
CHAPTER 20
“We talked primarily about the work of the Carter Center”: Author interview with Jimmy Carter.
Marketing chief Arthur Cohen was edged aside in September: Claudia Eller, “Paramount Marketing Exec Resigning After 14 Years,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2003.
and two months later so was Goldwyn: Dave McNary, “Paramount Prexy Is Stepping Aside,” Variety, November 24, 2003.
“My last tour of duty”: Author interview with John Goldwyn.